Barbara Cummiskey Snyder — Multiple Sclerosis Remission (1981)
Illustration: AI-generated dramatization (Gemini Flash Image)
Genuinely contested — both whether it happened and whether nature explains it.
The account
A woman diagnosed with severe multiple sclerosis at age 15, admitted to hospice in 1978, reported an instantaneous and complete recovery on June 7, 1981, with post-healing physician notes confirming absence of all prior MS findings.
Read the full account →Collapse the account ↑
Barbara Cummiskey Snyder developed multiple sclerosis at age 15, confirmed by spinal tap. Over the following 15 years she experienced progressive decline: seven hospital admissions in a single year, collapse of one lung, near-total paralysis, and eventual hospice-level care following a 1978 evaluation at the Mayo Clinic. Her treating physicians at Central DuPage Hospital and Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital in Illinois documented her deterioration across multiple hospitalizations.
On June 7, 1981 (Pentecost Sunday), Snyder reported an instantaneous and complete resolution of all symptoms. A physician's note recorded shortly afterward states she "now has none of the findings of multiple sclerosis" and that the tracheostomy tube had been removed. She has remained well for over four decades.
Three of her physicians are named in accounts of the case — Harold Adolf, Thomas Marshall, and Donald Edwards — and her care spanned two named hospitals, Central DuPage Hospital and Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital. One treating physician reportedly wrote about the case. Author Craig Keener confirmed details with two of the treating physicians and reported their accounts in peer-reviewed and academic contexts. The post-healing note also recorded the resolution of the collapsed lung.
No post-healing MRI or published peer-reviewed case report exists, and the medical records have not been independently audited outside religious-advocacy contexts.
Reviewer Notes
We weigh a claim on two things, kept separate from the story above.
Assessed by Miracles Jar AI
Well-attested by named physicians; the case substantially exceeds typical anecdote quality but falls short of a controlled medical publication.
Well-attested by named physicians; the case substantially exceeds typical anecdote quality but falls short of a controlled medical publication.
The documentation here is unusual relative to typical faith-healing claims: three physicians are named, two hospitals are named, and one treating physician reportedly wrote about the case. Keener's confirmation with two treating physicians provides the most rigorous secondary account available.
The standard counterargument is MS remission, and it applies — MS does exhibit natural remissions, including extended ones. But such remissions rarely occur from advanced bedridden stages with pulmonary complications, and a late-stage hospice remission to fully normal is extremely rare. The coincident resolution of a collapsed lung is medically independent of MS and is the strongest argument against simple spontaneous remission, since it is harder to attribute to MS remission alone.
The decisive limitation: no post-healing imaging has been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, and the medical records have not been independently audited outside religious-advocacy contexts. The original spinal-tap diagnosis is credible, but the degree of severity relied on self-report and physician narrative rather than published scan data. The evidentiary bar cleared here is higher than most such claims, but it is not equivalent to a formally published case report.
Evidence ledger — what the verdict rests on
Three named treating physicians at two hospitals documented progressive MS deterioration over ~15 years, including hospice admission at Mayo Clinic in 1978
Named doctors, named hospitals — verifiable in principle
Post-healing physician note confirms 'none of the findings of multiple sclerosis' and resolution of collapsed lung
Pulmonary collapse resolution is difficult to attribute to MS remission alone
MS can produce extended natural remissions; advanced cases occasionally stabilize unexpectedly
Standard medical explanation; but late-stage hospice remissions to fully normal are extremely rare
No post-healing MRI or published peer-reviewed case report exists; medical records not independently audited
Limits independent verification
What would raise this score: Long-term follow-up documenting permanence, in a condition with a near-zero spontaneous-resolution base rate, would raise the meter.
What would lower it: A documented relapse, or case literature showing the condition fluctuates or remits on its own, would move it down.
How this works
We keep two questions apart on purpose — so a thin record can’t make an impossible thing look proven, and a strong record can’t dress up an ordinary one as a miracle. First: Could nature explain it? (taking the account as true for the moment.) The question is whether nature could produce this at all — assuming, for the moment, the events are true as described. Second: is there real evidence it happened? A claim only stands out when both hold up — and we never call anything certain either way. How ratings work →
The natural explanation
The leading natural account for this case is spontaneous remission & the body's own recovery. Read what it explains — and where it stops.
Sources
Tagged by proximity to the event. Primary sources are direct or contemporaneous; tertiary are downstream retellings.
- 1.Secondarybook
Craig S. Keener, "Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts", 2011· no public link
Keener confirmed details with two treating physicians; provides the most rigorous secondary account
- 2.Secondaryother
Bentham's Substack, "The Miraculous Healing of Barbara Snyder (Substack analysis)", 2022· no public link
Summarizes physician names, hospitals, timeline, and counterarguments; not peer-reviewed
- 3.Secondaryacademic
PMC / NIH, "Faith Cures — PMC Review", 2022· no public link
Contextualizes faith-healing case reports in the medical literature
Cases like this
Nearest on the map — similar in how miraculous they’d be, and how strong the evidence is.